Groupon pulls controversial ads

Remember those strange, controversial Groupon Ads that got everyone upset because they poked fun at raising awareness for such causes as Free Tibet and Saving the Whales? The idea had to sound good on paper. Make a commercial talking about some great causes, raise awareness, while letting people know about your product at the same time. Only, it didn’t actually work out that way, so Groupon has bowed to pressure from complaining special interest groups and pulled the Ads while offering an apology.

“We hate that we offended people, and we’re very sorry that we did — it’s the last thing we wanted,” Mason wrote. “We’ve listened to your feedback, and since we don’t see the point in continuing to anger people, we’re pulling the ads.”

Groupon originally defended the ads by saying that not only did they raise awareness, but the causes affected benefitted by nearly a half million dollars in commercial time. But it didn’t sound like that to the causes being parodied. And as such, people spoke out harshly against them.